The next morning, Shen Yuan's backpack was noticeably heavier.
After he got home yesterday, Li Zhi had brought over her math materials from her first and second years of high school.
They were called "materials," but they were actually just test papers.
These papers were no longer useful to Li Zhi; she had already recorded all the questions she got wrong in her error notebook.
But for Shen Yuan, when combined with the Wu San, it was no less than starting his first round of math review ahead of schedule.
'Excellent. I'll get to review everything twice.'
'I'll grind you all into the dust!'
Shen Yuan's method was to cover all the answers with sticky notes and then solve the problems on the notes themselves.
Simple and effective.
Whenever he encountered a problem he couldn't solve, he could just lift the sticky note to see Li Zhi's solution process.
The problem-solving methods of a top student were well worth learning.
Before the morning reading session began, Shen Yuan was buried in his practice problems.
"DING!"
[As you spend more and more time with Li Zhi, you realize the gap between you and her has grown immense.]
[She is successful in her career with an endless stream of suitors, while you are merely a low-level public sector employee in a small county, not even a proper civil servant.]
[Strive on! 35 is the perfect age to forge ahead!]
[In the coming week, accumulate 24 hours of diligent study. Current progress: 0/24h. Reward: Memory Enhancement.]
Shen Yuan looked at the system, his brow furrowing slightly.
Honestly, for a working person, studying 24 hours a week was actually a very long time.
On weekdays, he'd get off work at 5:30 PM and finish dinner around 6:30 PM.
After taking care of odds and ends, it would be about 7:00 PM.
To ensure his work and study efficiency the next day, he'd go to sleep at 10:30 PM.
This meant his study time per day was three hours.
Over five weekdays, that was 15 hours, leaving 9 hours to be split over the weekend.
And it had to be *diligent* studying, too.
'At 35, could he still calm down and study diligently?'
Shen Yuan didn't know if his future self could do it, but his current self definitely could.
Besides, his study days were very long now.
'Twenty-four hours?'
'He could study 12 hours a day.'
"In that case, I'll aim to finish the mission in two days! It'll be a good chance to see just how strong this Vigorous and Full of Energy skill is!"
For the next two class periods, Shen Yuan kept his head down, diligently working through his math test papers.
His Eldest Female Cousin, the subject teacher, didn't say a word about his behavior.
Shen Yuan had already finished presenting the reading comprehension from the homework. His Eldest Female Cousin was now just going over key concepts and having the students take notes.
Shen Yuan no longer needed any of this, so it was better to spend his time improving his math.
His Eldest Female Cousin had seen his latest weekly test scores, and all she could say was that his math was truly abysmal.
If he could bring his math score up, Shen Yuan's overall grades would see a quantum leap.
When he returned after the morning exercises, Shen Yuan immediately dove back into his studies.
Shen Yuan's frenzied grinding of practice problems scared the daylights out of Ah Jie, who was sitting next to him.
"Hey, buddy, are you planning to change classes to a Painful Sacrifice too? Trying to put some pressure on the rest of us guys?"
"It's not like I'm a threat to you."
Hearing Shen Yuan's words, Zhou Shaojie felt a refreshing wave of relief, like downing a bottle of iced tea.
However, as someone who had spent two years in the honors class, Zhou Shaojie wasn't going to be swayed by a single sentence from Shen Yuan.
Ah Jie quickly leaned over again. "You're not secretly holding a grudge, planning to completely crush me, are you?"
Shen Yuan chuckled and said persuasively, "Jie, think about it. Who has more room for improvement, you in English or me in math?"
"Obviously my English. My fucking English score is garbage."
Shen Yuan clapped his hands. "Exactly! Think about it, if I want to improve my math, don't I need to spend way more time to get the same results as you would improving your English?"
Zhou Shaojie frowned, and after a moment, he nodded hesitantly.
"There you have it."
Shen Yuan continued to spin his web. "You only need to put in a little effort to achieve the same effect as me studying my ass off."
"Besides, I'm 20 points behind you right now! I need to get my math score above 110 just to catch up! You should know how hard it is to get a math score over 110, right?"
Ah Jie shook his head. "I don't."
Shen Yuan forced a smile.
'Fuck you, Zhou Shaojie. Just you wait until the next weekly test. I'm going to fucking crush you!'
Still, Shen Yuan successfully managed to hoodwink Zhou Shaojie.
...
Fourth period on Tuesday was PE, a perfect opportunity to head to the cafeteria early for lunch.
However, to grind his mission, Shen Yuan went straight back to the classroom after the running exercises in PE class ended.
Li Zhi, of course, saw the back of her childhood friend as he headed for the academic building.
'Has this guy finally seen the light?'
"Zhizhi, what are you looking at?" He Zhiyu asked curiously, following Li Zhi's gaze and naturally spotting Shen Yuan.
"The struggle of a stray dog."
"Huh?"
Knowing Li Zhi as she did, if He Zhiyu had asked Shen Yuan that same question just now, Li Zhi's answer would definitely not have been "the struggle of a stray dog."
'Changing "struggle" to "resistance" would be more like it.'
'No, "flailing" is more like it.'
Back in the classroom, Shen Yuan faced the test papers on his desk. Let the grind begin!
Shen Yuan wasn't the only one who chose to return to the classroom during PE; quite a few others had come back as well.
If you're going to grind, grind hard!
When it was about time, Shen Yuan glanced at the system.
Current progress: 4/24h.
One morning down, one-sixth of the time completed.
"Gotta keep at it."
After lunch, Shen Yuan went to the school store and bought a bottle of iced tea to keep himself going.
When Zhou Shaojie returned to the classroom, he couldn't quite believe his eyes.
"Yuan! Are you possessed or something?"
"Yep, that's right. The Painful Sacrifice put a curse on me."
Zhou Shaojie was taken aback. "What curse?"
"The Hell of Endless Problems. Whoever scores below the class average must start grinding practice questions without end."
Hearing this, Ah Jie trembled all over. "Holy shit!"
Looking at his own hands, Ah Jie said in disbelief, "How come I feel like I've been hit by it too?"
"Just the methods of a Painful Sacrifice."
After saying that, Shen Yuan started grinding problems again.
He had to admit, the Vigorous and Full of Energy skill was really something else.
Normally, Shen Yuan would already be feeling drowsy by now, but at the moment, he was only a little tired.
He didn't force himself to keep going and chose to take a nap instead.
He understood the importance of balancing work and rest.
...
"WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH—"
During the first period in the afternoon, the air conditioning from the lunch break had just been turned off, and the classroom's coolness hadn't completely dissipated yet.
But the rising heat was already making the ceiling fans spin like crazy.
According to the laws of physics, the speed of the fans was directly proportional to the "concentration of summer drowsiness."
And according to chemical reactions, different subjects acted as catalysts for the "concentration of summer drowsiness" to varying degrees.
Chinese literature class was clearly a champion among them.
Beneath the fan, Ah Jie and Ah Ze took turns bobbing their heads at Sister Lan on the podium, as if kowtowing.
Up on the podium, Zhou Ruolan was finding it hard to keep a straight face.
"Zhou Shaojie, Yang Ze, get up and go sleep in the back. Don't disturb the other students."
"Ai Muyu, what are you laughing at? Stand up and translate the last question."
Ai Muyu wasn't laughing anymore.
Behind Ai Muyu, Shen Yuan had a rare moment where he put down his math papers and was diligently working on his chemistry homework.